Situation at quake epicenter worse than expected

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-14 11:54

WENCHUAN, Sichuan -- The situation in Yingxiu Town of Wenchuan County, the epicenter of Monday's massive earthquake, was worse than expected with traffic cut off and children buried in debris, according to local government officials who trekked into the area.

Only some 2,300 people out of the town's population of more than 10,000 survived the quake, and more than 1,000 of the survivors were badly injured, said He Biao, deputy secretary-general of the Aba prefectural government.

He cited other officials -- including three vice governors of Aba (Bai Licheng, Wu Zegang and Li Chuan) -- who were in Yingxiu at present.

Survivors desperately needed medical help, food and water, the officials were quoted by He as saying.

Cries for help were heard from under the debris of a local school, but people had to dig with their hands, since blocked roads were preventing rescue teams and machinery from reaching the site.

"The situation in Yingxiu is even worse than expected," said an official on duty in the Aba government, citing the three vice governors.

The official said the vice governors trekked into Yingxiu after many hardships and several close brushes with death.

Rocks were still rolling down from the mountains on Wednesday. The highway linking Yingxiu and Dujiangyan City was totally paralyzed and a bridge on the highway had collapsed, hampering the arrival of rescuers.

He said that he had managed to contact the vice governors at 7 a.m. on Wednesday but the phone went dead as they were speaking.

In a nearby town, Shuimo, with 20,000 people, roads and bridges were severely damaged and rescue teams had not arrived. Shuimo was also in need of food, medicine and water.